If you do something nice for someone and he or she doesn’t show appreciation, don’t get upset. Your kindness doesn’t obligate that person to show kindness in return. Your aim should be to show kindness, period. You are not trying to manipulate the other, to put a sense of obligation on him or her.
But if the person’s lack of caring really bothers you, I have a suggestion: Next time, find someone else to be nice to. I know Christians are supposed to show grace, but we’re also instructed not to throw our pearls before swine. Life is too short to wound yourself through the ungrateful actions of others.
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
